Friday, July 27, 2012

Admit it: you've long wanted to hear a bluegrass rendition of Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage", from Dark Side of the Moon. This is it. (Thanks to vegasdaddy17 for the excellent montage of Lizards album covers, band photos, and images of other public figures that accompanies the audio.)

Thursday, July 26, 2012

My first taste of the "Connecticut style" lobster roll was two summers ago, when I sampled Red Hook Lobster Pound's offering on Brooklyn's Fulton Ferry Pier. It differs from the better known "Maine style," which features cold lobster in herbed mayonnaise sauce, in having warm, freshly cooked meat drenched in drawn butter. At the time I liked it, but thought the Maine variety still my favorite.

On our way to visit friends on Cape Cod last weekend, my wife suggested that we have lunch at a little seafood restaurant in Madison, Connecticut that she and a friend had discovered. "Delicious lobster rolls," she said, which easily convinced me.

The restaurant proved to be the Clam Castle, an unprepossessing looking place next to a Mobil station (which, according to Matthew Yglesias, may explain why its lobster rolls are so good). My wife (who took the photo above while I pumped gas) asked if I wanted the Connecticut or Maine style; being in the Constitution/Nutmeg State (take your choice), and having not had one since my maiden experience two years past, I chose Connecticut. I was not disappointed. As the photo at the top shows, the New England style split-at-the-top roll was loaded with succulent, fresh meat, including both knuckle and claw pieces. The rolls were accompanied by cups of cole slaw, the tartness of which nicely complimented the sweet, buttery lobster.
I'm now a convert to Connecticut, though I'll still enjoy the Maine style where it's the only option. Now that I'm back in Brooklyn, I'll have to re-visit the Lobster Pound and re-try theirs.

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About Me

I was born on March 19, 1946 in a city renowned in Vaudeville humor, Altoona Pennsylvania. My dad was in the military, so we moved many times in my childhood. We lived in rural England from the time I was five until eight, and I began my formal education in a county council school, where my being American is likely all that saved me from having my bottom caned.
I graduated from the University of South Florida (1967) and Harvard Law School (1970). Since then, apart from two years' active Army duty, I have lived in New York City.
In 1991 I married Martha Foley, an archivist. Our daughter, Elizabeth Cordelia Scales, was born in 1993 and now lives in Philadelphia.